Sunday, December 6, 2009

Comelec ruling on Erap out soon

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will soon come out with a ruling on the petition to disqualify former President Joseph Estrada from running in the May 2010 presidential race.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the commission is aware of the importance of an early decision on Estrada’s case.

He said the commissioners want to decide on the case immediately because they are expecting the issue to reach the Supreme Court
.
“We want to give the SC more time to tackle it. The sooner it is out of the Comelec’s hands, the sooner the SC will have time to resolve it,” Jimenez explained.

A second petition calling for the disqualification of Estrada was filed before the Comelec last Saturday.

Lawyer Evillo Pormento said Estrada should be disqualified from running as president because it violates the 1987 Philippine Constitution, particularly Article VII Sec. 4, which states that the president shall not be eligible for any re-election.

The complainant said Estrada should be declared a nuisance candidate and be excluded from the official list of candidates to be printed in the ballots.

The complainant said that allowing Estrada to run is a clear violation of the 1987 Constitution and a bad precedent because other former presidents might also seek re-election.

Lawyer Oliver Lozano had earlier asked the Comelec to disqualify Estrada, but his petition was dismissed because the former president had not yet filed his certificate of candidacy.

The Comelec is hoping to finalize the list of candidates before the end of 2009, since printing of ballots starts in January 2010.